Saturday saw the revival of our friendly fixture against Fulmer CC, which has laid dormant for five seasons, in the verdant and tranquil environs of South Buckinghamshire.The sun shone on west London and the surrounding counties, providing perfect conditions for a Royal Wedding, the FA Cup Final and 80 overs of entertaining leather on willow on the erstwhile set of Sleepy Hollow. While rings were being exchanged just down the road by Harry and Meghan, Pacific welcomed two ringers of their own in the shape of alliteratively-named keeper-batsman Harry "Larry" Holmes and pre-eminent financial litigator David Wigg.

Having anticipated heavy traffic due to the afternoon's less significant goings-on, we arrived in good time and good spirits, only to find a game of youth football in full swing.Pleasingly, the rollers were out on the cricket square and the footballers, having won their league and partaken in a brief burst of celebratory chanting, vacated the outfield in timely fashion. Country folk, eh?Who knew it was possible to be so polite. After a lengthy catching practice session, in which Chasseaud, Burnham and Korgaonkar all held worldies, we were full of confidence as we went out to field.

Matt "Clint" Dempsey and Big Jimmy Soden bowled good spells for little reward, and for the first ten or so kept Fulmer's run rate down to around three per over. Unfortunately, however, intergenerational opening pair King and Jackson offered little in terms of chances.Sensing that our seam attack may have lacked a little bite, captain Chasseaud turned to Korgaonkar to make the breakthrough we needed.Aroon bowled a deft spell of his familiar celestial loop, the ball disappearing into the bright sun and beating the bat of Jackson on multiple occasions.

Korgy was probably the pick of the bowlers and deserved much more on what he described as one of his "favourite grounds in the London area, if you like".Despite not taking any wickets, he was the only bowler to really trouble Jackson, who biffed his way to 73 before skipping down to the wicket to Basi's shorter ball and being stumped. With opener King having needlessly run himself out to the arm of Big Jim, Basi, Rob "Walt" Dinsey, Chasseaud and Tamby each toiled in turn against the free-scoring pairing of Zeeshan (77) and Priyan (39). Our bowlers were not helped by a number of catches being dropped (not always the easiest of chances) by usually reliable fielders such as Dinsey, Chasseaud, Soden and Burnham.

At 32 overs things were looking bleak as the run rate escalated exponentially.Chasseaud brought Wigg into the attack for the death overs from the pavilion end.Perhaps mindful of the risk posed by a big six to the windscreen of his parked-up purple Porker, Wigg tightened things up and earned himself three of our five wickets on the day.It was suggested after the game that Wigg may have undersold his bowling ability prior to the match.To be fair though, he hadn't seen the rest of our bowling that had come before and may quite reasonably have been expecting a higher standard.At the end of 40, Fulmer had set a somewhat daunting total of 261.

Tea was a quintessentially bucolic affair. A varied spread was lovingly set out (and explained) by a Fulmer wife, the local old boys had a pint, watched the football and chirped anyone within earshot, and Fulmer man Peter Box exchanged pleasantries with Chasseaud and invited us back next year."Sweet" said Aroon upon hearing the news. Chasseaud, meanwhile, was heard to say "260 will be a good win, I think; let's see what happens".

Burnham and Hogg opened the batting against pace man Priyan and the wily old Box.Hoggy was looking solid before a peach of a delivery from Priyan nipped back off the seam to remove his leg stump and continue this season's miserable run of form. Ever the showman, Burnham edged and slogged his way to a quick 25, which were useful early runs notwithstanding a total absence of technical proficiency – much to the annoyance of the Fulmer fielder at third man.

Holmes and Chasseaud then took to the crease.The journalism student timed the ball with elegance and grace, his batting every bit as impressive as his superb wicketkeeping, scoring 39 from 39 and looking set to go big before being needlessly run out by the captain – leaving the pavilion with their heads in their hands.The Wiggster looked good for his 24 before being pinned by Timms, and at drinks we had reached 117: a few more than Fulmer at the same stage.

It was between overs 20 and 32 of their innings when Fulmer really started to motor – a fact that was not lost on Chasseaud as he began to push the tempo.Toby played some fantastic shots in a classic innings of 108 off 74 (some dots may have been missed by the scorers), including 13 fours and a couple of maximums (he had got off the mark with a six).So fervent was Toby's zeal in his quest for 10ish an over that he ran out Big Jim Soden, our number six and last real hope of runs, in a manner that would have been comical were it not so sad.James would have been well within his rights to refuse the run and send the skipper back.Fine club man that he is, and recognising the game situation and Chasseaud's fine fettle, Soden effectively gave up his wicket in order to keep Chasseaud batting – earning himself your correspondent's nomination for Champagne Moment.With slow-scoring partners and the opening bowlers returning to Fulmer's attack, Toby completed his hat-trick and ran himself out.

And so the flame of hope was extinguished. We finished just 26 short.

Overall, we acquitted ourselves well in challenging circumstances, and look forward to returning next year.After a couple of beers in the club house (which sadly did not provide table service), the post-mortem continued late into the night back at the Old Dairy.